10 Disturbing Crimes That Occurred in Rural America
10 Disturbing Crimes That Occurred in Rural America
Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re looking at ten of the most terrifying criminal acts that took place in rural America.
A Wave of Arsons
Accomack County, Virginia
Starting off our list is a fiery reign of terror that gripped a declining agricultural region. Over five grueling months between November 2012 and April 2013, Accomack County, Virginia, was brought to its knees by a string of over eighty arsons. Rather than targeting people, the perpetrators focused on the area’s many abandoned buildings. The sheer volume of blazes pushed local volunteer firefighters to the breaking point and left terrified residents wondering if their occupied houses were next. Luckily, police caught the arsonists before that could happen, finding them to be a mechanic and former volunteer firefighter, Charlie Smith, and his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Their bizarre crime spree was driven by a complex web of romantic dysfunction, and it ultimately required a massive law enforcement task force to extinguish their burning obsession.
The Keddie Cabin Murders
Keddie, California
Scenic mountain getaways are supposed to be peaceful, but Cabin 28 in the resort town of Keddie became the site of an unimaginable bloodbath. On the night of April 11, 1981, Sue Sharp, her teenage son John, and his friend Dana Wingate were subjected to a frenzied and prolonged attack using hammers, knives, and a pellet gun. The brutality of the crime scene traumatized the responding officers. Making matters worse, Sue’s 12-year-old daughter, Tina, was missing from the blood-soaked scene, and her scattered remains were discovered three years later. Despite a massive initial investigation and a resurgence of interest decades later utilizing modern DNA technology, those responsible for this horrifying slaughter have never been caught.
The Cowden Family Disappearance
Copper, Oregon
A serene Labor Day camping trip morphed into a baffling mystery in the Siskiyou Mountains back in 1974. That’s when Richard and Belinda Cowden vanished into thin air along with their two young children. Searchers arrived to find a chillingly undisturbed scene: the family’s car keys were sitting out, a watch rested on a table, and a half-empty carton of milk was still waiting to be consumed. It looked as though they had simply evaporated. Seven agonizing months passed before prospectors stumbled upon their concealed bodies tucked inside a remote cave miles from their campsite. While a convicted felon named Dwain Lee Little remains the prime suspect due to circumstantial evidence, investigators have never officially closed the case.
The Clutter Family Murders
Holcomb, Kansas
This senseless slaughter birthed the true crime genre as we know it. In the dead of night on November 15, 1959, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock invaded the rural Kansas home of the Clutter family. Acting on an inaccurate prison rumor about a hidden safe stuffed with cash, the ruthless pair bound, gagged, and executed Herbert, Bonnie, and two of their teenage children. In the end, the pair fled the bloody house with less than $50. The ensuing manhunt and the psychological unraveling of the killers captivated author Truman Capote, who chronicled the ordeal in his true crime masterpiece, “In Cold Blood.” Both men were eventually apprehended and fully confessed to the cold-blooded massacre, resulting in their executions.
The Pike County Massacre
Pike County, Ohio
In an operation displaying military precision, eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families were massacred in a single night in April 2016. Assailants targeted four separate rural trailers and executed the victims as they slept, yet they kept the infants alive. The sheer scale and coordination of the ambush left authorities scrambling, with assumptions of a cartel hit or a sprawling gang war. However, the truth was far more intimate. Two years later, authorities arrested members of a local family called the Wagners. Investigators revealed that the orchestrated shootings were entirely motivated by a bitter custody dispute over a child, as Jake Wagner shared a young daughter with victim Hanna May Rhoden.
The Murder of Ken McElroy
Skidmore, Missouri
How does a man get gunned down in broad daylight in front of dozens of people, yet nobody sees a thing? For decades, Ken McElroy terrorized the tiny farming hamlet of Skidmore, Missouri. Everyone reportedly hated him, and he constantly dodged consequences for theft, sexual assault, arson, and even shootings. The justice system repeatedly failed to protect the residents of Skidmore, so the town took matters into its own hands. On a sweltering July day in 1981, McElroy was fatally gunned down on Main Street while sitting in his pickup truck. Despite dozens of people witnessing the crime, no one cooperated with the police. The FBI got involved and grand juries convened, yet Skidmore’s impenetrable wall of silence held firm, and the shooter was never identified.
The Bath School Disaster
Bath Township, Michigan
On May 18, 1927, the United States experienced what is still its deadliest school massacre. It resulted from the mind of Andrew Kehoe, a Michigan farmer who was going through a difficult period. He had recently lost a local election, he was growing irate over rising property taxes, and his mortgage was being foreclosed. His mind broken from the perceived injustice, Kehoe rigged the Bath Consolidated School with dynamite. At 8:45 AM, the dynamite went off, destroying the building and claiming 38 lives. And when rescue efforts arrived at the school, Kehoe continued the violence. He drove his truck straight into the crowd and blew it up, taking another four innocent lives. Unfortunately, Kehoe himself died in the explosion, denying justice to dozens of grieving families.
The Texarkana Moonlight Murders
Miller County, Arkansas & Bowie County, Texas
In the spring of 1946, a predator dubbed The Phantom Killer plunged these twin border towns into a state of paranoia. Striking exclusively under the cover of darkness, this masked assailant preyed upon young couples in lovers’ lanes and even shot at people through their farmhouse windows. Wearing a crude white burlap sack with makeshift eye holes, the Phantom brutally murdered five people and severely wounded three others over a span of ten weeks. Desperate residents fortified their homes, stores instantly sold out of locks and ammunition, and the community became a ghost town at sunset. Despite interventions by the legendary Texas Rangers and countless suspect interrogations, the hooded sadist vanished like a ghost and was never identified, leaving behind a town that dreaded sundown.
The Villisca Axe Murders
Villisca, Iowa
Turning back the clock to the summer of 1912, we find a grisly tableau that continues to haunt the Midwest. After returning from a pleasant church function, the Moore family and their two young houseguests went to sleep, unaware that a killer was lurking in the attic. Sometime after midnight, the shadowy intruder bludgeoned all eight victims to death with an axe. They then engaged in curious post-crime rituals, draping clothes over mirrors and covering the victims’ faces with blankets before running into the night. Detectives chased the likes of traveling preachers, known criminals, and even local politicians, but no conviction ever stuck and the killer got away. The house still stands, a macabre tourist destination for history buffs and paranormal investigators.
The Crimes of Ed Gein
Plainfield, Wisconsin
Rural American violence is intrinsically linked to the grotesque story of Ed Gein. When police searched a decaying Plainfield farmhouse in 1957 looking for a missing store owner, they uncovered a literal house of horrors. Ed Gein wasn’t just a murderer; he was a prolific grave robber with a macabre obsession. Inside the house, investigators discovered furniture crafted from human bones, bowls from skulls, and masks and clothing from skin. Gein’s ultimate goal was to construct a suit made of women’s skin so he could physically become his deceased mother. This mild-mannered but deeply disturbed handyman not only shattered the illusion of rural safety forever, but directly inspired iconic fictional icons like Leatherface, Norman Bates, and Buffalo Bill.
Have you heard of these rural cases before? Share a comment below.
